The Family Justice Data Partnership brings together academics and experts from the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research, a collaborative research centre based at Lancaster University; SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) Databank, a research resource developed by Swansea University that holds a range of anonymised, person-based datasets. The Partnership works in collaboration with Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru, which represent children in family court cases.
The Family Justice Data Partnership was funded by the Nuffield Foundation on behalf of Nuffield Family Justice Observatory to provide access to rich data about how the family justice system is working and to increase the capacity and capability of researchers and data analysts to use population-level family justice data to understand the outcomes for children and families more clearly and to explore their characteristics and pathways through services.
The work of the Family Justice Data Partnership forms a central part of Nuffield FJO’s aim to improve the lives of children and families by ensuring that decision-making in the family justice system in England and Wales is informed by the best data and research evidence. Research produced by the Family Justice Data Partnership for Nuffield FJO included Born into Care, a long-term programme of work which explores the very youngest children (infants) in the family justice system.